A Final Triumph; or, A Lady Bachelor — page 96: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

94 A LADY BACHELOR. learn to be artificial, and, consequently, it is hard to separate the real from the assumed. Human nature is not all bad, and where it does not come under the com- mand of false influences the better side is seen; but, alas! real earnest, honest people excite too many antagonisms to become social successes. Unfortunately, a false stand- ard exists and maintains social necessities to a large extent. There is a class which has a right to be exclusive, but with its exclusiveness it can be kindly and considerate; and to a large extent it is. This fact remains: refinement should repel vulgarity; intelligence reject ignorance and coarse- ness and confine them to their proper place, not permitting them the social recognition they receive because of dollars only. Millions should not open the door to vulgarity and coarseness, nor should the lack of wealth close it to culture and refinement. But one word more. The artificial class is not necessarily heartless; it is the existing conditions that overshadow it, and the artificial atmosphere compels the wearing of a mask. Social ambition in those who have no real claim enforces a seeming heartlessness that would not maintain if the real requirements of high social life were made absolute and the mixed element eliminated. There was no question as to the social position of Eloise; her only crime was the fact that she was beautiful and twenty-eight, and in order to exhibit the feeling toward her, I will relate one little incident that occurred. I was sitting on the piazza, when a young lady and gentleman seated themselves near me. He was of the usual type, good-looking, talkative, and devoted. The lady was also one of aftype. She was chatty, an excellent giggler—and Gomichbooks (ECO)